Chapter 14

Sans stood there, unsure if he was supposed to be impressed or shocked about Gaster's big revelation. Before too long, the silence got awkward and he finally spoke up. "So what's the big deal about this mirror?"

Gaster smiled, as if he'd been waiting for him to ask. "The Mirror is an artifact of unknown origin that we discovered while on the run during the war. As to it's purpose, it shows us visions."

He paused again, seemingly satisfied with his response. Sans turned and faced him directly. Seriously, what was with the whole mystery vibe? Had Gaster always been like this?

"Visions of what?" he asked.

"It varies," he replied. "There seems to be no set of rules on how the Mirror functions. Sometimes it shows us visions of past events or events that could happen in the future. Sometimes the visions are clear and concise, almost as if someone is deliberately trying to get a message across. Other times, they are as vague as can be. Even stranger are the visions that seem to be of completely different universes. I've seen visions of you Sans, but not as a god, but as some sort of mortal standing guard over a large door. I've seen visions of myself, working in a lab. Once, I saw a vast war being waged between our kind and the humans, one which we eventually lost."

He stopped again, giving Sans time to gather his thoughts. "So somewhere along the line after you found it, it gave you a vision that showed you how to unleash your Light?"

"Precisely," Gaster said. "The Mirror also granted us a vision detailing the ritual used to create new gods. The strangest part of all this it that we can't tell if these things happened purely by chance or if there's another power at work here. On one hand, the knowledge it granted us seems to have been intended to aid us. After all, we were able to defeat Chaos and then create you to maintain the balance. However, the visions containing the knowledge we needed seemed to occur at random. We were lucky it showed us how to use our Light before Chaos destroyed us. The vision that revealed the ritual for creating gods occurred several years before you were born. And then, of course, there are the visions of alternate worlds that don't seem to have anything to do with us. It's quite the conundrum really."

Sans nodded. He had hoped to get a solid answer for all of the convenient events he'd noticed, but it turned out that Gaster was just as clueless as he was. Some sort of magical mirror that occasionally gave visions that just happened to contain the solution to the biggest crisis in history? He wouldn't have believed it if he weren't standing right in front of it.

"Why does it give off such a weird vibe? I've been on edge since we walked in the room."

"The Mirror causes a sort of distortion in time and space. Nothing large enough to threaten the fabric of reality, but large enough to be noticeable. To be honest, I believe it is simply a side effect of its abilities, not to mention further evidence to the theory that it is not of our world."

"So how does it work? Do you just look into it?" Sans asked.

"Yes. Hence the sheet covering it. I can take it off if you want, but its possible nothing will happen. The sheet's just there so we don't get hit with a vision without warning."

"What will I see?"

"Even I cannot say. I can tell you that the Mirror rarely shows a vision to more than one person, so its likely that only you will be privy to anything it shows you. If it shows you anything at all. As I said earlier, there seems to be no definitive rules associated with it. Sometimes months will go by between visions. Sometimes its barely a few seconds."

Sans smiled. "I'll take my chances," he said.

Gaster shrugged and waved his hand. The large sheet fell off the Mirror. Sans looked into it and saw nothing but his reflection. He stood there, staring at himself for a few minutes wondering if anything was going to happen, but nothing did. If it wasn't for the distortion he was sensing, he'd have sworn he was looking into a regular old mirror.

He sighed. "What a waste of time," he muttered.

He turned to Gaster. "All right, let's go. This thing isn't doing anything."

Gaster didn't reply. He just stood there, staring at him.

"Uh, old man? You there?" Sans asked.

Still no reply. Sans took a few steps closer before he realized that Gaster wasn't just ignoring him. He wasn't moving at all.

"What the heck?" he said.

"Waste of time? That's not very polite," said a voice behind him.

It wasn't a voice he'd heard before, but that wasn't the scary part. The scary part was that someone had managed to sneak in the room without him or Gaster noticing. Sans whirled around, but there was no one behind him. The only thing he saw was the Mirror. He looked at his reflection again, and then did a double take. His reflection was smiling, and he wasn't.

"I mean, seeing as how you're talking to yourself, you should probably be polite," his reflection said.

Sans had no idea what was going on. Was this some kind of trick? "Who are you?" he asked.

His reflection cocked an eye-socket. "What are you blind? I know you technically don't have eyes and all, but seriously. Don't you know when you're staring Death in the face?" he replied.

Sans couldn't think of anything to say. He was talking to his reflection. Maybe he really should take some time off the job. He might be going crazy.

"Nah, you aren't going crazy," his reflection said.

What the? Was he…

"Reading your mind? Not really. I'm you, so I'm allowed to know what you're thinking."

Sans, for the first time in his life, was completely stunned. Of all the crazy scenarios he'd pictured himself in, this was not one of them.

"What's wrong?" his double asked. "Didn't you want to see me? I mean, you had Gaster take the sheet off. Or were you expecting something like this?" His reflection raised a hand and snapped his fingers. Suddenly, the entire room vanished, save himself and the Mirror. Pictures began to fly by, showing him snapshots of his life. Sans glanced in every direction, trying to decipher what he was seeing.

"Look, pal," his reflection said. "I can't do all the work here. You have to at least meet me halfway."

His words snapped Sans back into focus. With the focus came the realization of what was happening.

"This is a vision, isn't it?" he asked.

His reflection smiled. "Now he gets it."

Sans mind raced. This whole thing was being shown to him by the Mirror, but why? Was he supposed to learn something from this?

"If you don't understand something, its usually a good idea to ask a few questions," he reflection said.

Sans glared at him, but his double simply stood there, grinning. "Fine," Sans said. "Why are you showing me this?"

"Me?" his double asked, raising his hand to his chest in an innocent gesture. "I'm not doing anything. As to why… Well, let's just think of this as a ice-breaker."

"Ice-breaker?" Sans asked.

"Yeah. You know, something you do in order to build rapport with someone. Although this is probably the first time someone's had an ice-breaker with themselves."

Sans kept glaring at him. Was he really this annoying? "Ok, so what? Are we gonna have dinner or something?"

His reflection shook his head, still smiling. "Sorry, bud. Ain't got time for that. But I do have time for a few questions."

"Questions? What kind of questions?"

"How should I know? You're the one who looked into the Mirror. Means you were looking for an answer to something. But in order to get answers, you have to ask the right questions."

Sans already knew what he wanted to ask about. "What can you tell me about Chara?"

His double seemed to muse it over for a second before, "She really doesn't like you."

"Tell me something I don't know," Sans retorted.

His double shrugged. "Well, you should have been more specific. But fine. What if I told you Chara is going to start hurting a lot of people? Maybe even kill some of them."

"What!?" Sans blurted.

"Sure. I mean, it stands to reason. She's on a warpath my friend, and she's not going to be all cuddly when it comes to getting what she wants. Of course, she might not move for a while yet, but," He paused, before adding, "Maybe you should see for yourself."

He snapped his fingers again, and Sans saw dozens of scenes of Chara, wielding a scythe eerily similar to his own, torturing humans before cutting them down. He was seeing potential future murders, and none of them were pretty. Just as abruptly as they started they disappeared, leaving him alone with the Mirror again.

His reflection continued, "Thing is, people don't usually torture others unless they're trying to get something out of them. So you might want to try to figure out what she's after."

"And just how am I supposed to do that?" Sans said. "I can't even find her, let alone get a sense of what her goal is."

"Come on, you're better than this. If your prey continues to elude you, then you should probably spend some time learning how to catch it. Just how much do you really know about Chara anyway?"

Sans was about to spit back a harsh reply, but that last question stopped him. "Not much," he admitted grudgingly. Then he said, "But its not like there's anybody that really knows her that I can talk to."

"Have you tried talking to her parents?" his double asked.

"Parents?" Sans asked incredulously. "She doesn't have any parents you numbskull! She was…" he stopped speaking as he realized what his double was getting at.

"She was created," his reflection finished for him. "Created directly by a certain someone. Someone that you know exactly how to find. Perhaps you should pay another visit to her."

"Are you kidding me? She hates my, or our I guess, guts."

"No one said it'd be easy."

"Says the guy who isn't even real."

His reflection gave him a wide grin, and then his eye-sockets were suddenly empty. "Trust me buddy. If you don't figure out what Chara is after and find a way to stop her, you are really not going to like what happens next."

Before he could do anything, he was immediately surrounded by half a dozen Gaster Blasters, one of his signature attacks. They fired as one, and then he saw nothing but white.

Meanwhile, in the human world….

"Please," the temple acolyte said, her whole body shaking with fear. "I don't know where they are, I swear!"

She could barely see anything in front of her. It was if a curtain of shadow was obscuring her attackers. She was pinned to the floor by several vines and the numerous thorns were inflicting more pain than she had believed possible.

"I highly doubt that," one of her attackers said. The voice sounded incredibly young. "But I suppose you might be telling the truth."

"I've told you everything I know. I don't know where they went, no one around here does!"

"Really? Well, then I guess you're of no more use to me then."

The vines holding her down lifted her body into the air and held her about a foot off the ground. The acolyte saw the shadows move, and then a small girl walked out of them. She made a short gesture and a blood red scythe appeared in her hand. She placed the blade against her throat.

Now her other assailant spoke. "Go ahead," he said. "Call for help. Cry out into the darkness."

The acolyte couldn't help herself. "Help!" she cried, hoping someone would hear her. "Someone, please! Help me!"

The small girl jumped up into the air and just floated there, hovering face to face with her. She couldn't look away from those pitch black eyes. The girl smiled and said,

"But nobody came."